STRUGGLES
Struggles-for-autonomy-in-Kurdistan
Struggles-for-autonomy-in-Kurdistan
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An interviewwith<br />
Batman EcologyAssembly<br />
In the summer of2015, Corporate Watch interviewed the Ecology Assembly<br />
in Batman. The modern city ofBatman was a village until the 1950s, but was<br />
built upon rapidly after oil was discovered. The largest oil field in Turkey<br />
lies just outside the city. At 17 kilometres long, the Batı Raman oil field<br />
produces 7,000 barrels ofoil per day. However, the local Kurdish<br />
community gets no benefits from living in such an oil-rich region.<br />
Corporate Watch: Can you tell us about the Ecology Assembly?<br />
Ecology Assembly: The Mesopotamian Ecology Movement was established in Amed in 2011<br />
under the umbrella ofthe DTK [the Democratic Society Congress, an umbrella organisation<br />
aiming to establish democratic confederalism in Bakur]. From there, we built a branch in<br />
Batman. We started as activists and we became an assembly six months ago. Our main aim in<br />
establishing the assembly was to gather all ofthe activists in Batman in an inclusive way,<br />
despite differences ofpolitical views and other issues.<br />
We raise awareness ofecological and environmental issues. We built this assembly to take<br />
care ofall beings, not just humans. We are aware ofthe detrimental changes that<br />
industrialisation has done to the world, and we want to inform the Batman community about<br />
this.<br />
We are part ofa group called Planetary Boundaries, which is an international working group<br />
with lots ofagendas; for example, it focuses on the acidification ofthe oceans.<br />
ecological struggles in bakur<br />
The capitalist world puts a price on everything, and the capitalist structure has killed<br />
humanity and nature. To be successful in building alternatives, we must have a strong<br />
network, getting help from and supporting each other.<br />
We're also against the ill treatment ofnature in the Amazon, Nicaragua and other places in<br />
the world, and we are friends ofthe Zapatistas. Our nature, our future and our hopes<br />
shouldn’t be in the hands ofbig corporations. Nature doesn’t belong to big companies, and<br />
our future shouldn’t be in the hands ofcapitalists.<br />
CW: How do you fit into the structure ofthe DTK?<br />
All assemblies have representatives in the DTK. We have a representative too. We are part of<br />
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